News
- Humans
Weighing risks, convicts display blind spots
Prisoners often don’t appreciate likely gains or losses in making decisions, a finding with possible policy implications.
- Space
Spacecraft eavesdrops on distant stars
By listening to sound waves, researchers hope to learn about the age and composition of distant worlds.
- Tech
Robots can use coffee as a picker-upper
A gripper made of a bag of loose grains has advantages over grasping devices that use individual digits.
- Paleontology
India yields fossil trove in amber
Insect remains suggest the continent hosted a surprisingly wide variety of creatures 50 million years ago.
- Chemistry
Breathe better with bitter
Taste receptors in the lungs open airways in response to acrid gases.
- Health & Medicine
Pet frogs can transmit salmonella
A CDC investigation adds a common aquarium species to the list of amphibians that can carry and spread bacteria.
- Life
Why flies can drink and drink
Fruit flies use sophisticated pumps to suck fluids as thick as syrup.
- Planetary Science
Venus, erupting?
Lava flow suggests recent volcanism on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor.
- Animals
Doing the wet-dog wiggle
Hairy animals have evolved to shed water quickly by shaking at the optimal speed for their size.
- Health & Medicine
Anticancer protein might combat HIV
The tumor suppressor p21 shows up in abundance in some people who are impervious to developing AIDS despite being infected, a study shows.
- Physics
Sailing toward the island of stability
The creation of six new superheavy isotopes has encouraged researchers who hope to find long-lived elements of even greater mass.
- Math
Marathoning made easy
Or at least endurable, by calculating and then keeping to a physiologically sustainable pace.
